Senate Republicans blocked a $60 billion infrastructure bill Thursday, making the bill the second piece of President Obamas jobs proposal to be voted down in the Senate.

Republicans and a few Democrats filibustered the broader $447 billion jobs bill last month. The vote came is a scripted floor exchange, with Democrats expected to quickly defeat an alternative GOP infrastructure funding bill. The bill garnered 51 votes--not enough to overcome the 60-vote cloture threshold.

The Democratic bill, which includes a $10 billion national infrastructure bank, is funded by a 0.7 percent surtax on incomes of more than $1 million a year. That is nonstarter for Republicans who argue the surtax shows the bill is an electoral ploy aimed at painting the GOP as obstructing White House efforts to boost employment.

Democrats are more interested in building a campaign message than in rebuilding roads and bridges. And frankly, the American people deserve a lot better than that, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said in an animated floor speech earlier Thursday.

McConnell implored Democrats to bring forward jobs legislation that can be enacted rather than legislation designed to be cited in a campaign speech. The remark drew a pointed response from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.

We have had here for the last 10 months a campaign speech every day directed by my friend, through his Republican colleagues and his caucus, doing everything they can to make President Obama look bad, Reid said.

House Republicans are cooking up their own transportation jobs plan, which likely will be as unpalatable to Democrats as Obamas infrastructure plan is to Republicans. House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, is proposing to pay for a six-year surface transportation bill with expanded domestic drilling, a political nonstarter for Democrats. Boehner said Thursday that the House will take up

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